Copyright The New York Times
This article contains minor spoilers for “Predator: Badlands.” When it comes to movie franchises, the “Predator” one has never been considered elite, despite a loyal fandom. It doesn’t have the cultural impact of “Star Wars,” the techno-goth aura of “Alien,” the Tom Cruiseness of “Mission: Impossible” or the comics-based support system of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And yet the release of the 9th entry in the series, “Predator: Badlands,” is getting big exposure along with a positive early reception. How did we get here? Yet it looked as if Shane Black’s inane and confusingly titled “The Predator” (2018) had left the series as dead as a showpiece in a Yautja’s trophy case. Even the “Badlands” director Dan Trachtenberg, a longtime fan, admitted that the property “has gone up and down.” “Every single entry has really cool parts,” he said in a video interview from Los Angeles, “but as a whole they haven’t all held together.” Trachtenberg, 44, has spent the past few years trying his darnedest to change that, first with “Prey” (2022), in which a Yautja faces a young Comanche woman in the 18th century, then with the time-hopping animated anthology “Predator: Killer of Killers,” which came out in June. These movies went straight to Hulu (where the entire franchise is available) but the positive reception they encountered was likely a factor in “Badlands” getting a fancy theatrical release. What exactly is a Predator? The Yautja are a race of apex warriors who live to hunt — at least we don’t know of any other hobbies. They do it to eat, but mostly they do it to challenge themselves. The movies have established that they have been at this for millennia, as evidenced by trophies from a wide array of galaxies, time periods and species. Their advanced technology (powerful spaceships, invisibility cloaks, laser-guided weapons and more) helps them track and kill their targets. What is “Badlands” about? The biggest gamble is that the story, which takes place in a far future, is told from a Yautja’s perspective — specifically one named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi). “The movie wasn’t really like, ‘Let’s do “Predator” but from the Predator’s P.O.V.,’” Trachtenberg said. “It was taking the creature, taking that monster, and putting him on a journey that was like what the humans in the movies go through. So it’s really an inversion of the premise.” OK, so what’s Dek hunting then? We first encounter our hero — and yes, he is definitely a heroic figure — on his home planet, Yautja Prime, duking it out with both his brother (Michael Homick) and his father (Schuster-Koloamatangi again). To prove his worth, Dek, who is the runt of his family, decides to travel to the hostile planet Genna, where he aims to bag the Kalisk. That creature is reputed to be unkillable, which of course makes it even more attractive to a Yautja with a chip on his shoulder. Do I need to have seen the previous installments to follow? “Badlands” works as a stand-alone, but as usual with franchises, a certain familiarity with the previous movies adds to the enjoyment. Knowing the fundamentals of the earlier installments also helps to appreciate the film’s thematic connection with the original: Trachtenberg sees “Dek going through a gauntlet the way that Dutch goes through,” he said, referring to the Schwarzenegger character from the first movie. Predators are known to not be particularly easy on the eyes — good thing they wear a cool helmet. For most of the film, Dek does not wear the Yautja’s iconic face protection, letting the audience appreciate his mandibles in all their glory. “We realized, ‘Man, we’ve got to see those eyes,’” Trachtenberg said, referring to the Yautja’s surprisingly expressive peepers. “Then the idea was, maybe the mask breaks part of the way through and he’s wearing a half mask. It would have been much easier on the V.F.X. budget and easier to accomplish, and still keep the iconography of the Predator that we all love. But the whole point here is it’s a monster,” he continued, “and the thing that you haven’t seen is taking that ugly mother-effer and connecting with it, rooting for it.” This is messing with my head. Does the Predator at least have his gadgets? Yes and no. Dek does have a wrist gauntlet, the accessory that in previous movies has had a seemingly limitless range of abilities. He also wields a cool sword with a laser option. But for parts of the film, he must show resourcefulness. “I put him through a real trial,” Trachtenberg said. He explained that he wanted to put Dek in a situation similar to that of a human facing a weaponed-up Predator, so we could see, as he put it, “what this guy’s truly made of.” How does Elle Fanning figure in the plot? Fanning plays Thia and Tessa, synthetics, or synths, from the nefarious Weyland-Yutani Corporation — yes, the one from the “Alien” universe. This is not random, as the two franchises’ paths have crossed for quite a while: We caught a glimpse of a Xenomorph skull in a Predator’s trophy case as early as “Predator 2,” back in 1990. The full-blown crossovers, the so-called “AvP” films, are of varying quality: Paul W.S. Anderson’s pretty decent “Alien vs. Predator” (2004), a “Raiders of the Lost Ark”-like adventure in which the lead human baddie is a certain Charles Bishop Weyland; and the Strause Brothers’ “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007), the single worst entry in the whole franchise. So where are the humans, then? Nowhere to be seen, which is quite rare for a live-action feature. “Just because there’s no humans in the movie doesn’t mean that there aren’t characters that you can really connect to,” Trachtenberg said. “And I knew if we had any humans in the movie, it would become like ‘AvP’ — we’ve seen Predators and humans team up before,” he continued. “If there was a human in the movie, that would become the premise, as opposed to really sticking to our guns of, ‘This is a ride you have not taken before.’”
